Education changing Tibet’s future

Education has been playing a key role in changing many young Tibetan’s future. In the 1990s, three Tibet middle schools were set up by the central government in Beijing, Tianjin and Chengdu so that more Tibetan students could go inland to get the best educational resources.

A reporter visited the Sichuan Chengdu Tibet Middle School where all Tibetan students are financially supported by the state and brings us this report on how education will shape Tibet’s future.

His name is Badengciren. He was born and brought up in a village in the Tibet autonomous region. His family are ordinary herders. His parents and relatives have provided him tremendous support to let him study thousands of kilometers away from his family.

“Becoming a military officer was my dream since I was little. My hometown is in Chayu county which is close to the country’s border,” Badengciren said.

These students are in their final year of high school. Like Badengciren, the only way of achieving their goals is to study hard and enter the best colleges in 2015.

“The purpose of bringing these Tibetan students inland, is to give them better educational opportunities. After three years of study here, they are healthy, and have pleasant lives,” said Gu Dinghua, principal of Chendu Tibet Middle School in Sichuan province.

Education is a benchmark for measuring the development of any region and any nation. Last year, about 8,000 young people from the rural area of Tibet autonomous region passed college entrance exams. There’ve certainly been many impressive changes in the lives of many Tibetans in the past few decades.

Besides investing in education, in the past 2 decades, people’s livelihoods have also improved. The central government has invested 30 billion yuan ($4.69 billion) in water infrastructure projects. The facilities have provided safe drinking water for 2.39 million people. Government investment has also brought electricity to about 360,000 herdsmen.

In recent years, the central government has issued a strategic plan to make Tibet more self-reliant and to make its environment more sustainable. For these young students, their lives will become better when they in turn contribute their knowledge and wisdom to the development of Tibet autonomous region.